


Fashion Disaster

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 08:16:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12165030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: Louisa helps out at the fashion show again, and it's kind of a disaster.





	Fashion Disaster

"Pass, please." If Louisa was as much a diva as any of the other girls who came to the fashion show, she would have rolled her eyes, put her hand on her hip, and said 'don't you remember me?' while fluttering her eyelashes. The last girl had done that, and she was now fuming over by the balcony. Apparently, the security guard had not recognised her from the last season of The Bachelor Jorvik. So instead, Louisa took the Alex route.

"What?" asked Louisa. The security guard rolled his eyes.

"Look, darling, I can't let you in without a pass," said the security guard. "Sorry, it's just the rules. There's heightened security this year due to... reasons."

"Reasons such as the rest of the world going to hell?" asked Louisa.

"No, no, darling, nothing like that," said the security guard. "Now, if you don't have a pass, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Don't you remember me from last time there was nearly a fashion emergency?" asked Louisa. "I stopped that Le Goon guy. Or I tried to. I got Franziska's sketches back, at least."

"Darling, you are a fashion emergency," said the security guard. "That shirt with those pants and boots?" Louisa shrugged, not really caring what he thought of her. The important thing was that Lisa really liked seeing her in her shirt, and the druid pants and boots were quite comfy and made her feel like part of the group.

"Just let me in, I'm sure I'll be able to help you with whatever disaster has happened this time," said Louisa.

"Hey, now I remember you!" said the security guard. Louisa resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Finally. "You're Lisa Peterson's girlfriend!"

"Yes," said Louisa. "So can I come in?"

"Oh, of course, Commissioner Lacroix was actually asking for you," said the security guard, unhooking the velvet rope so that Louisa could walk through the doors. As soon as her eyes had adjusted to the darker room, she saw Commissioner Lacroix waving her over. She made her way over there, glancing over the audience as she did every time. There were a few new faces here, along with Anastasia Silverglade and Prince Charming, who had appeared last time. Perhaps Anastasia just hadn't been in the country before then.

"Louisa! Thank Calvin you're here," said Lacroix.

"What, did someone wear socks with sandals?" asked Louisa. Lacroix gasped.

"Never joke about something so serious!" said Lacroix. "No, not that emergency, though we have agents watching Elizabeth Sunbeam very, very closely. We have received... well, it might be better if Franziska told you herself. She is quite distressed."

"Do I have to?" asked Louisa with a sigh.

"Yes," said Lacroix. "It is an emergency. Just not precisely a fashion one. Though I miss the days when that was the only emergency we had to deal with."

"Don't we all," said Louisa as she opened the door and stepped backstage. She liked it back here, it reminded her of when she'd taken part in school plays and dance performances back when she'd been growing up. She saw Raptor sitting in an armchair with his feet up clad in fluffy bunny slippers, a velvet red robe around him, and a foamy drink in one hand while the other hand was manicured by a stylist. She raised a hand in a raise. "Hi, Raptor."

"Yo," said Raptor, waving his fingers at her.

"Louisa!" said Franziska.

"Well, at least someone recognised me," said Louisa as she walked over to the fashion mogul.

"Of course I did, your horrible aesthetic sense has been giving me a headache since you entered the mall," said Franziska. Louisa sighed.

"What do you want?" asked Louisa.

"I have been receiving... worrying letters," said Franziska. "Of course, the most concerning thing about them is that they are letters. Honestly, who uses letters anymore?"

"Letters about... what exactly?" asked Louisa, beginning to worry. With so much awful stuff going on in the world, several terrifying possibilities began to run through her head.

"A fashion crime the likes of which the world has never seen," said Franziska. "The letter writer said that if my fashion show goes ahead, it will be truly dangerous."

"And... have you checked the surroundings?" asked Louisa. "You know, checked for bombs and stuff?"

"Oh, please, the mall has the highest security," Franziska scoffed. "If there was a bomb, it would have been found by now."

"Maybe someone should take a look around the room," said Louisa. "You know, check the electrical equipment and stuff. And just generally keep an eye out for suspicious activity."

"An excellent idea, Louisa," said Franziska. "You can go ahead and do that."

"Wait, why me?" asked Louisa. "Don't you have Commissioner Lacroix for that?"

"Louisa, please, he is far too busy guarding the backstage area," said Franziska. "You have nothing better to do, go along now and check for any suspicious activity. Report back to Lacroix when you are done."

"Alright," said Louisa. She really didn't feel like the right person for the job, but there really wasn't much else that she could do. If nothing else, she'd somehow be the hero again and get a nice item of clothing out of it. Maybe even a piece from Franziska's private collection, which she'd save for Anne when it came time to rescue her.

Louisa didn't find much, but the multiple cobwebs made her skin crawl. Didn't this place have a cleaning company? The janitor certainly wouldn't have let such an oversight happen. Something wasn't right.

The commissioner, however, dismissed her concerns.

"Cobwebs? You're worried about cobwebs?" he barked. "Take it up with the cleaner, then! We have to ensure that this show goes off without a hitch. Check the electrical equipment and pyrotechnics."

"Exactly," said Louisa. "The mall janitor wouldn't have let this happen, he's a neat freak. Something's not right here."

"What's not right is that there could be an electrical fault that could set the place alight, and you're worrying about some cobwebs!" said Lacroix.

"Alright, fine, ignore me," said Louisa with a huff as she walked away. The first few pyrotechnics seemed fine, as did the sound systems, but one of the pyrotechnic devices let out some fire. Apparently, it had been primed. The light from the fire illuminated something scuttling away along the ceiling, but Louisa dismissed it as a piece of cloth. Surely, though, that was a fire hazard. She reported it to the commissioner.

"All good, then," said Lacroix. "And it's a good thing you're back, too, Franziska was asking for you."

"Alright, I'll go," said Louisa.

"Wait!" said Lacroix. "She is in a bit of a hurry, just go and grab the box of clothes."

"Fine," said Louisa. Who knew a fashion show was so much work? Last time had been more fun, finding clues and then chasing Le Goon. When she got to the box, though, she wrinkled her nose. She was pretty sure that clothes weren't supposed to stink like that. There was also a bit of cobweb on the box. Picking it up, Louisa made her way back to the backstage room as quickly as she could and almost dropped the box in her haste to put it down.

"Finally, we can't have dawdlers in the show," said Franziska. "Speaking of dawdlers, where are my models? Go and fetch them for me."

"Yes, I know exactly what I'm looking for," Louisa muttered under her breath as she left the room. Fortunately, it was easy to find five attractive-looking young women in the room.

But when it came time to hand out the clothes to the models (Louisa was quite leery about the box, and shook the clothes when she got them out until Franziska complained about her doing it wrong and got the clothes out herself), something finally went wrong.

"Where is Sheri?" asked Franziska.

"Oh, she lives by the fifteen minute rule," said one of the models. "If your teacher doesn't show up in fifteen minutes, you don't have to go to class. Or work, in this case."

"How to get fired 101," said Louisa. "That doesn't apply to jobs. It's also an urban myth, you should find the teacher if they don't show up. Email them or something. Class is only cancelled when the teacher says it is."

"Sweetie, I don't care," said the model, brushing some hair behind her ear. Louisa was overcome by the strong urge to punch her. Or shake her. But instead, she walked over to Franziska to give her the bad news.

"She did what? Oh, that girl is so fired and getting a bad reference," said Franziska.

"Good," said Louisa, glad that Franziska was finally talking sense.

"Well, now I have a new dilemma. Hmm, you're about the same size as Sheri. How would you like to be a model?" said Franziska.

"What?" asked Louisa, her thoughts screeching to a halt.

"But I don't want you to wear her clothes, so here, go over to the chest, find a shirt, and put it on," said Franziska. "Chop chop, it's almost time for the show."

"Okay," said Louisa, nervous now as she approached the box. She did the same as before, quickly opening the box and snatching out the first shirt she saw, then shaking it to see if anything fell out.

"Oh, just put the shirt on and kneel in front of this mirror so I can make some alterations," said Franziska. Louisa felt a little embarrassed to be changing backstage in front of all these girls, but the shirt did feel quite nice against her skin. Even if it stunk.

"So now what?" asked Louisa.

"Well, you can lead the show," said Franziska. "Go and show off my wonderful new design. But walk, pose in the spots marked out for a few seconds, and don't run on the other side of the catwalk or down the middle at any time."

"Uh, okay," said Louisa, the nerves gnawing at her stomach now. She walked out, her heart pounding, and hoped that it would all be over soon. And it was going very well. Lisa was even in the audience, grinning at her.

But then, at the very end of the catwalk, the lights went out and the music stopped.

"What's happening?" asked Lacroix, running onto the catwalk.

"It is I," said a stupid, familiar voice. "Le Goon!" Le Goon made a theatric pose, and Louisa bit back laughter. He might be actually serious.

"Le Goon, what are you doing here?" Franziska demanded, standing at the other end of the catwalk. Louisa stood near Lacroix, not wanting to be in the middle of a shouting match.

"I have come to destroy you once and for all, Franziska!" Le Goon said. "You will never live down... spiders! I even sprayed your latest collection with spider pheromone, so your little models will make a scene, running and screaming and fleeing for their lives."

There was a scream from the audience, and Louisa looked up to see spiders descending from the ceiling. Now she was the one screaming, but she only froze up for a few moments before she ran from the stage, pulling her shirt off and throwing it away. Fortunately, Lisa was there with her leather jacket, so Louisa wasn't left naked.

"Ugh, I feel like they're crawling on me," said Louisa.

"Don't worry, let's just go home," said Lisa.

Louisa showered thoroughly once they arrived home, and then sat on the couch with Lisa, trying to calm down. Jorvegian spiders may not be as dangerous as the ones back home, but they were still huge and terrifying. Especially when you'd been covered in spider pheromone.

"Maybe we should watch TV to take our minds off it," said Louisa, picking up the remote and switching the TV on. As she always did when she turned the TV on these days, she worried about how the people back home were doing with the current damaging ad campaigns due to the postal vote. At least Jorvik didn't have any of those- it just had ads about GED, and businesses, and people offering horse training or stable care services. But when the news came on, she blushed as it showed her running out of the fashion show.

"Or not," said Lisa. "But look, keep watching." As Louisa watched, Le Goon threatened to spray a concentrated version of the spider pheromone everywhere. He switched the machine on, but it didn't work. He shook it, looked into the nozzle, and then a purple mist sprayed out over him. He coughed and choked, covering his face and spluttering about spider pheromone. And then, the spiders appeared.

Le Goon fled the fashion show, Lacroix in hot pursuit, and all Louisa could do was laugh.

"At least I wasn't the only one looking ridiculous," said Louisa, giggling.

"RIP Le Goon," said Lisa, joining in the laughter. She kissed the top of her girlfriend's head, and Louisa switched to another channel, not really feeling like watching the news. It was time for something more lighthearted.


End file.
